Social Media for Writers

[ysabetwordsmith]

This article offers social media advice for writers moving away from Twitter.

Comments

[matsushima]

This is quite a bummer. It looks like options are either to shift back to blogging/mailing lists (which I don't hate but I feel like it's harder to find new people that way?) or switch over to photo/video platforms which I know that I, personally, do not prefer.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

The biggest problem with the Twitter exodus is that there isn't another service anything like it. When LiveJournal drove people away in various waves, there were several similar blogging platforms, including Dreamwidth, so people just moved to those. We won't have a close replacement for Twitter unless somebody gets exasperated enough to build a new one -- which we desperately need, because Twitter does some things that other services just don't do. Shifting to any other service is therefore much less effective.

However, there are some ways to make other services work a little closer to Twitter.

Blogging -- You can make tweet-sized posts on Dreamwidth because it's a very flexible platform. In fact plenty of people used to echo their tweets here. Most of my posts are longer, but if you look at my blog, you'll also see some that just consist of a line or two pointing to an interesting link. Once in a while, those spark a discussion, so I know that people do like and read them.

Finding new people via blogging is harder than doing it on Twitter, but still much easier than doing it with a solo website. See the section "Finding People on Dreamwidth" in my Twitter Exodus post for communities and techniques.

To mimic Twitter's ability to show you what other people are talking about, use the Interests page. You can search for topics you like, or view popular interests.

Mailing lists -- These work great if you sell goods or services. They give you a way to connect with your customers. I personally like them for discussions too, but most other folks don't anymore. Maybe they'll become more popular again post-Twitter.

There are several good ways to build a mailing list. One is to put a signup form on your website. Another is to collect contact information at an event where you meet people who might be interested in whatever your list talks about.

I'm not a big fan of the photo/video platforms either.

Re: Yes ...

[matsushima]

I think the thing I will miss about Twitter is how casual those interactions were(/are - I'm still active there). I liked bumping into people with whom I do not share interests, or at least, only tangentially. I had someone explain to me why nuclear reactors are safe in a thread about the chili discourse. It was so weird and fun and I don't think any of the proposed Twitter alternatives - Hive, Cohost, Mastodon, etc - have the right infrastructure or enough users for that to happen. Every time there seems to be "the next Twitter," something happens to blow it up. I mean, there was that whole thing with Spoutible last month.